The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1887-07-28
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Our Great Hot Waves.

The convoy oi "hot waves
which have just Travelled across
our continent will make the sum-
mer Of 1887 memorable in me-
neurological annals. The last OF
these eliminated Monday after
noon with temperature of lO3
on the Middle Atlantic seaboard.
But their duration has been as
marked as their Intensity. Since
the 4ih inst. there has been
scarcely a day when there was
not recorded over 4 large part OF
the country heat exceeding 9oO.
The Interesting questions OF
where and how the hot waves
originate have been 10 little
studied. Naturally we should
imagine that they are Graded III
the steaming bosom of the trop-
ical ocean, and are thence prop
agated as sudden pulsatlons, or
slowly drifted by the return
trade wind currents into the in=
terror of the continent. But this
theory will hardly stand. "he
heat rays which strike the earth's
land surface are arrested and ac
cumulate or penetrate the soil by
conduction until the solid crust
glows like the Sahara. But the
heat rays which strike the ocean
surface do not accumulate, and
are soon dispersed by wave &C
ton. The 'specific heat" of wa
ter, too. Is so great that it takes
as much heat to raise the temper
allure of pound of water Q Fab
renheit as is required to raise that
of nine ponnds of irou 10, We
must therefore look elsewhere
than to the tropical ocean for the
birthplace OF our great "kot
waves"
That they emanate from the in
terror of the continent itself
seems more tenable; hypothesis.
During the recent intense heat il
was a common thing to hear OF
the mercury in "the nineties'
over the Northwest and the Up
per Mississippi Valley, when at
the same hour on the Gulf Coast
so near the topics, the thermom-
>eter registered but little more
than 500. Although the sun has
been recedlng from Us and com
menced his journey southwark
OH June %, and on the End. inst
the earth reached that orbit when
she is most remote from the fiery
orb. temperature has continually.
increased, because during the
long July days the soil accumu-
lates more heat than it can throw
off during the short nights. 1t Is
to this fact we owe the pro!onga-
ton of summer for seventy days
after the sun has started on its
southern journey. A week hence
the suns northern declination
will have decreased since the SOL
stice June 21) abou: 50. But the
reduction in the amount of heat
then received from his rays on
the northern tropic will be only
about 1.1S0ih of that which he
sshot down upon that line when
he was vertically over it.
II follows from these consider
ations that our great shot waves
are generated in the interior OF
the continent by the diurnal &C
cumulations OF soil temperature.
Thismassing of heat in the land
by day, however, would cause SO
much shot waves" as we have
recently had, We're 1t not that the
water vapor in The atmosphere is
plentiful enough TO prevent the
soil from radicatlng as much heat
by night as it has stored up by
day. Prof. Tyndall and other
physicists have, demonstrated
that, though only 10 ofthe at
mosphere may be made up Of va
Dor molecules, This small modl-
cum of aqueous yapor lntercepts
fifteen times the quantity OF heat
Escaping from the earth) stop
ped by the whole of the air IN
which it is diffused." This infer
ence is sustained by the fact that
among the highest soil tempera
lures on record are those observ-
ed by Sir John Herschel in the
humid atmosphere of The Cape
of Good Hope-as high as 159
Fahrenheit-and by the traveller
Stuart on the Macquarle River,
in New South Wales, where, he
saws, "the ground was almoat
molten surface, and if match
fell upon it it immediptely ig-
nited."
If these physical laws govern
ing the folm llIon of our deadly
waves of heat were applied intour
meteorological researches decid-
ed progress might be made III
predicting their occurrence. IN
,ensiiy and duration. 1t would
be great step in This direction
10 take observations, by means
of captive balloons or other de-
vices, of lie actual humidity OF
the higher atmospheric strata,
and also Of the upper air currents
which have 10 do with the birth,